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David McKeown/staff photo
Students board the buses at the end of the school day Friday at Pottsville Area High School.

The Pottsville Area School District has had five snow days so far, but other school districts in Schuylkill County have to make up even more days of missed classes.

"There are more snow days this year than I can remember," Joie L. Green, Mahanoy Area School District superintendent, said Friday.

Students in the Mahanoy Area School District have to make up nine days.

"We are still looking at coming up with a plan to try and get our students to graduate on time," Green said.

Green said the district will make up three days by shortening spring break. Students will now only have off that Friday and the following Monday, instead of that Thursday and following Tuesday and Wednesday, too.

"The reason they have those days off is because it's contractual in our school for the staff," Green said.

The elementary school has another day to make up since they had classes canceled when the high school and middle school students did not.

It can be difficult to cancel school, but Green said all the roads in the district need to be taken into consideration.

"We had to close some days because our roads were completely covered with snow while other areas weren't getting anything," Green said. "It's a very tough call to make. It is one of the hardest parts of my job, but safety is the most important thing to me."

Students were already able to make up one day on an in-service day earlier this year. Green said that day was changed to an Act 80 day and the in-service was moved to the end of the year.

"It is hard too because the students are missing a lot of time in the classroom," Green said. "Two hour delays are great because they are still here, but they are still missing that instruction time."

Green said they were able to move the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment back a week to give students more time to prepare.

"We are still looking at our calendar to make some creative decisions that the (state) Department of Education will allow us to do," Green said. "There's also the possibility of adding 20 minutes to days."

School districts have a few options to complete the required 180 days of instruction by June 30, according to the PDE.

Tim Eller, deputy director of communications for the department, said schools can use scheduled vacation days, extend the school year or request approval from the state under Section 1504 of the Public School Code to calculate those days by instructional hours.

In order fulfill that last option, schools have to provide 450 hours for kindergarten, 900 hours for grades one through six and 990 hours for grades seven through 12. These hours equal 180 days.

North Schuylkill School District has had seven snow days so far, junior and senior high school Principal Christian Temchatin said Friday.

"The inconsistency is troublesome from an educational standpoint because the students can never get into a rhythm," Temchatin said.

A new calendar is on the agenda to be approved at a school board meeting Wednesday, but the plan is to make up four days during spring break and three at the end of the year, Temchatin said.

Students will now only have off Friday for spring break. They originally had off Thursday through the following Wednesday.

The graduation date has not been moved so seniors will not have to make up those three days.

"We do not have to move gradation because of the instructional hours by the state," Temchatin said.

Nativity BVM High School in Pottsville already made up one of its six snow days by going to school on Presidents Day, Principal Lynn Sabol said Friday.

"Luckily, some of our schools started before Labor Day, but it's been a challenge," Matthew Kerr, director of communications for Diocese of Allentown, said Friday.

Kerr said Catholic schools can use days originally scheduled for vacation, but not for certain holidays. Kerr said the Thursday before Easter is optional, but they can not use that Friday.

"I don't think graduation dates have been moved anywhere," Kerr said.

Sabol said the diocese requires the school schedule to have an extra five days for snow days at the end of the year. The school goes an extra week to put in 185 days before graduation June 5.

"If we lose five days, we are still even," Sabol said.

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